In a thread http://musicasacra.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=344&page=1#Item_1 on the CMAA discussion boards, http://www.musicasacra.com/forum/
a generous church musician offers a free download of his own variations for organ,* of a tune nearly totally devoid of musical content, (IMO,) because he suspects many will be stuck playing it as one of the major players in the Liturgical-Industrial complex has packaged it in one of their Confirmation Packets.
So it seems the practice of "bundling" is not just a problem in the world of personal computers.
Big businesses (big, in the case of liturgical music, within its own small pond,) make it too easy for the average barely literate liturgist, DRE, p/t church musician, to just relievedly say, Oh, thank God, GIA/OCP, whoever, has done the work for me, look, here's the music you're supposed to use for this rite...
Oh, and here's a CD to buy of the publishers' "artists" performing it, that's how it's supposed to sound.
And thus is Velveeta perpetrated and perpetuated.
Part of this is the fault of the conference of bishop, who should have provided "official" music for all the rites, music that was aesthetically, liturgically and pastorally suitable, at least as a starting point, and free to the Church.
Such music, (ideally: beautiful, reverent and relatively devoid of affect,) would be so much a better point of departure, a better seed to have planted in the minds of those who don't have the time, energy or information to do much more than take the sappy, overly emotive power ballad wannabes the Liturgical-Industrial complex offers, and be grateful for it.
I'm finding the same kind of dynamic in saecular performance merchandising just now, the packages you can buy for children's theater, for choral concerts...it's really disheartening.
It is leading to (attempts, at least, at) homogeneity and squashing creativity.
In my loud-mouthed opinion, you understand....
*In effect, this gentleman is offering y'all some home cooking! Or at very least, a good recipe to make palatable the Hamburger Helper that is foisted upon you... Thank him!!!!!!!!
Universalis, your very own breviary in pixels...
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2 comments:
Being 22 I have to object to all this talk of "Velveeta" and "Hamburger Helper" as something bad. Delicious food if you ask me!
But to make a point of it, what do you say we do about those parishes like us college-age people? The ones that love their Velveeta or Hamburger Helper (or Spartan brand Hamburger Meal)? I can afford to eat a little better than I am now, but am I going to invest the energy?
ISTM there's 3 things needed to not eat Veleveeta: a) the money, b) the energy to make a good pasta dish, c) the desire to eat a good pasta dish. Same thing with abandoning the Hawaiian ditty at communion: a congregation must have the resources, the willingness to commit them, and the desire to do it. If any of those things is lacking, then what?
It's easy for you or I to sit in our high, guitar-less lofts playing protestant hymns and the occasional chant and look down on those misguided fools who try to make the best of Hamburger Helper (I fry the meat in worcestershire sauce). But maybe their congregations want "We come to tell Our story" or "Gather Us In" and the best the MD can do about it is introduce some fancy organ works people will like. Maybe no one's willing to work towards anything more. Maybe they just don't have a choir and it's the only thing the congregation is good at. How can we, who got to where we are by such hard work and cunning, look down on others who are trying to do the best they can with what they have?
A friend of mine in the area was a chant scholar in the 80's during his high school years. He studied with one of the best experts in the state. Now his parish does the worst of Gather and Spirit & Song. Part of me wants to scream at him "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOU AFTER HIGH SCHOOL???!" But I'm sure his congregation would have a fit if he offered them shepherd's pie (yes, that's the fanciest food I've ever eaten). So maybe the best he can do is to do the Gather dreck the very best he can. I can't fault him, especially when there's days when I go to church and recto-tono the propers just because I don't have the energy to do anything better. THAT'S why people compose organ works on crappy communion hymns or argue about which Haugen psalm setting is the least bad.
What? No Veal Prince Orloff?
Though as it happens, I like Velveeta as well...
But I don't "look down," (in any other than the literal sense, which I do because it's a very high loft,) on anyone who does his best.
I look down on, (in the metaphorical sense, in other words, feel a certain degree of contempt for) those who try to prevent others from doing their best.
I look down on those who don't want children to learn, who have no interest in improving themselves, and want everyone else to settle for their level.
And I look down on those who want to make a buck off the complacency of those who will settle for mediocrity, instead of striving for excellence themselves and bringing excellence to the less privileged/educated/informed.
" I can afford to eat a little better than I am now, but am I going to invest the energy"
I suppose everyone invests what energy he has, where he thinks it worthwhile.
What I have for supper? No, not very important...
How I worship the Almighty? call me crazy, that seems important enough not to settle for where I am now, or for where my parish is now...
(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)
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